IBT Staff Reporter

Australia's competition regulator has given final approval for a transpacific alliance between Qantas Airways and AMR Corp's American Airlines, it said on Thursday.

Amazon.com Inc took the wraps off its long-awaited Kindle Fire on Wednesday, tacking on a mass market-friendly $199 price tag that poses a serious threat to the dominance of Apple Inc's two-year-old iPad.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the central bank might need to ease monetary policy further if inflation or inflation expectations fall significantly.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc unveiled the latest in a string of settlements with major financial creditors, reaching deals with Bank of America Corp and Merrill Lynch that will reduce the banks' claims against Lehman by a combined $7.5 billion.

Amazon.com Inc's aggressive pricing on its Kindle devices leaves Barnes & Noble Inc little choice but to match the online retailer and update its own devices, even if that means more damage to the bookstore chain's bottom line.

He laid bare the secrets of governments and corporations. But until now, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fiercely fought demands for more transparency in his own personal and financial affairs.

Mitt Romney is back in the lead for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday. Support for Rick Perry has fallen after his lackluster debate performances, and Herman Cain has surged.

As officials scramble to stop a growing listeria outbreak from contaminated cantaloupes, a supermarket chain has also found the bacteria in spinach dip.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc cut its third-quarter revenue and gross margin forecast citing manufacturing issues at its German foundry supplier.

U.S.-based private equity firm North Street Capital has agreed to buy Dutch luxury car maker Spyker from its parent company Swedish Automobile , the Financial Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Commodity-related stocks drove Wall Street lower on Wednesday as stiff declines in energy and metals prices underscored investor concerns about global economic weakness and Europe's raging debt crisis.

Hewlett-Packard CO has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc to help the company defend itself against possible activist investors who could push for change at the Silicon Valley company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Interest in the London Metal Exchange as a takeover target has snowballed and the number of suitors has risen to double digits because business is booming with volumes at record levels, its chief executive Martin Abbott said.

Federal antitrust regulators have asked for more information about Google Inc's planned $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.

A listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupe has sickened 72 people and killed between 13 and 16, making it the deadliest food-borne outbreak in the United States in more than a decade -- and the toll is expected to rise in October.

International auditors return to Athens on Thursday to deliver a verdict on whether Greece's tougher austerity measures qualify for aid to avert a default that would plunge the country into bankruptcy.

Thomson Reuters Corp named Jim Smith chief operating officer, putting him in a strong position to succeed Chief Executive Tom Glocer, who is under pressure to boost sales to financial institutions.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc and TCW Asset Management Co won dismissal on Wednesday of a lawsuit by German state-owned Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg over a derivative product that lost money during the credit crisis.

Chris Christie's speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Tuesday did not include a declaration of his presidential candidacy -- but it didn't rule one out, either. All the same, the prospects of him running are extremely slim.

Though the PlayStation 3 had some issues with pricing and software when it first hit store shelves, the system has turned into a gaming juggernaut in the console market.

With today’s advancements in technology, we can engineer virtually everything from animals to our children. Now, we can even engineer “better” versions of ourselves. Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on atomic and molecular levels, may transform the cars we drive to the medical treatments we receive.

With iPhones being all the hype on the market right now, do we have a need for devices purely serving our musical needs anymore? Why buy iPods when iPhones do it all and more?

A browser game titled Planet Hunters sends players searching through Kepler public data for potential planets, and now university researchers are saying that we may discover two new exoplanets very soon.

Canada's energy regulator said on Wednesday it is looking into a complaint that TransCanada Corp's permit to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline within its own borders has expired, adding the prospect of more delays to a project environmentalists hope to block.

Apple Inc looks set next week to unveil its much-awaited new iPhone, which analysts say will have a bigger screen and work better with remote computing services.

The trustee recovering money for victims of Bernard Madoff's epic fraud can seek $386 million at most from owners of the New York Mets baseball team who invested in Madoff's firm, a federal judge said.

Amazon.com Inc introduced its eagerly awaited tablet computer on Wednesday with a price tag that could make it the first strong competitor in a tablet market that has been dominated by Apple Inc's iPad.

Polls point to a minority government in Canada's economic powerhouse of Ontario after provincial elections next week, amid disillusionment with the ruling Liberals and disappointment with their main rivals.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did not comment on the U.S. economy or monetary policy in a speech about emerging markets on Wednesday.